Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Movie Mini Review: That Thing You Do (Director's Cut)

Plot summary:Hometown boys from Erie, PA, form a band and make it big with a hit record. They ride the wave of the success with the considerable help of their manager until everything falls apart.My thoughts: Okay, this movie has been out there a while. It's a good flick, light-hearted and enjoyable even on repeated viewings.

But what prompted me to add this title to the movie review lineup was this email I received a month or two ago from Nico Del Castillo:

Hi there!

I was just bloghopping and saw that you mentioned Tom Hanks in your blog (yes, strangers do stumble upon others' blogs). I work for a company called M80, which is working with FOX to find out what bloggers think about the recent extended edition of That Thing You Do!. So basically, I'm sending out review copies of That Thing You Do! to people and I was wondering if you would be into this sort of thing and write a review for us since it's related to Tom Hanks? Of course, an honest review is strongly encouraged since it is your blog, after all. Plus you'd get to keep the copy of the DVD for yourself.

If you're interested, please let me know. If not, no worries. And yes, there is a real person behind this email address.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Well, far be if from me to turn down free cyber swag. The disc arrived a week or so later, but it was several weeks before my Supermodel Wife and I could a screening into our busy social calendar.

If you liked the theatrical release of this movie, you'll probably like the director's cut as well. As vanity projects go, this was a far more successful venture for Tom Hanks than Beyond the Sea was for Kevin Spacey. It is more genuine, with music woven in more convincingly.

But I have to agree with the editors who left some scenes on the cutting room floor. The DVD director's cut that we viewed had scenes that didn't seem to advance the plot, or at best tried too hard to drive home minor plot points. For example, there were several extra scenes of Charlene Theron's character's developing affair with her dentist while her boyfriend and drummer, Skitch Patterson, was on the road.

There were other scenes that didn't seem to have any relevance at all to the plot, including an introduction to manager Mr. White's (Tom Hanks) gay lover.

The only other issue I had with the DVD was that the audio didn't seem to agree with our home theater system. I'm not sure it it's a flaw in the disc, or if I had a setting off on our tuner, but I haven't had the same issue with other DVDs so I'm inclined to blame the disc.